When Words Fall Short
On ‘Illinoise’ and the potential of dance to give music new meaning. Plus, stopping to smell the flowers.
Spoiler Warning: Plot details from Illinoise ahead (but if you’ve listened to Illinois, you already know them).
At its best, art is a canvas on which we project ourselves. The music that holds the most emotional power for me continues to be music I discovered in my youth—at such a formative time, I needed that canvas to make sense of myself and the world. There were many bands that did this for me as a teenager—Death Cab, Coldplay (their early albums)—but one artist who I wanted to but could never quite get close to was Sufjan Stevens. I adored his album Illinois—the comforting folk melodies felt like home. But whenever I listened more closely, I would discover hyper-specific lyrics that I couldn’t relate to. The concept album combines state history with the narrator’s own experience growing up as a closeted Christian in the Midwest. The subject matter covers the gamut from sympathizing with the serial killer John Wayne Gacy to UFO sightings to the World Co…